Mark Carney says he supports the US-Iran peace deal. If the prime minister is serious, to improve its prospects, he should end Canada’s unique isolation of that country.
In recent days the United States and Iran have agreed to a deal to end the war. While the accord has not been made public, it reportedly calls for Iran to end its closure of the strait of Hormuz at the same time as the US concludes its blockade. It also includes the release of stolen Iranian assets and some type of investment/reparation fund for an economy damaged by aggression and sanctions. It also calls for an end to Israeli aggression in Lebanon.
While both parties have reportedly signed electronically, the deal is to be signed officially on Friday in Switzerland.
On Monday Carney said, “I very much welcome the peace deal or the ceasefire deal, the 60-day truce.” He added that Canada and the other G7 nations would “see what we and other countries can do to help reinforce this important progress that’s been made.”
The deal is precarious in large part because Israel wants the US to continue attacking Iran to weaken a country that checks its Greater Israel project. They are killing Lebanese in the hopes that Iran or Hezbollah will respond in a way that could justify sabotaging the deal.
In “Israelis denounce Trump’s deal with Iran” the Washington Post reported, “In the end, it was those who are close to Netanyahu who lashed out with a bitterness and sense of betrayal rarely seen directed by Israelis toward Trump. In a stunning social media tirade early Monday, Yinon Magal, a former lawmaker and anchor on Channel 14 television who is often described as Netanyahu’s most prominent mouthpiece, lashed out at Trump as a ‘loser,’ Vance as a ‘lowlife,’ and Trump’s special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff as ‘two little Jews … whom Qatar bought for a lot of money and who sold out their brothers in Israel.’”
Zionist groups in the US and Canada are not pleased with the detente. They will no doubt seek to further stoke tensions with Iran. The opposite is what is needed. To lessen the chance of restarting the disastrous war in West Asia Canada should move to normalize relations with Iran. Below are five modest measures Ottawa should rapidly adopt to re-found bilateral relations:
- Restart diplomatic relations with Tehran. Before winning office, the Liberals promised to reverse Stephen Harper’s policy but when Trudeau’s initial foreign minister, Stephane Dion, sought to renew relations, his plan was scuttled by the Israel lobby working through its allies in the Liberal caucus (Anthony Housefather and Michael Levitt).
- Remove Iran from Canada’s state sponsors of terror list, which Harper created in 2012 to hamstring future governments’ efforts to restart relations. If the US and Israel aren’t on the terror list, why is Iran?
- Remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from Canada’s terrorist list. This two-year-old decision was a direct sop to Israel and should never have been made. If the Israeli military isn’t listed, why is part of Iran’s?
- Repeal a host of sanctions imposed on Iranian individuals and entities.
- Return Iranian assets that have been seized or commandeered in violation of international norms.
Iranian resistance forced the Trump administration to accede to some of Tehran’s demands to end the conflict. It’s appropriate for a country of 92 million to be a major power in its region. What’s absurd is foreign powers supporting an explicitly supremacist nation of ten million in its bid for Greater Israel.
Canada should shift its policy to end its unique and odious isolation of Iran.
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